Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services.

Qualcomm Selling Subsidiary for $800 Million

Vista Equity Partners buying Omnitracs, which works with fleet management and telematics.

Qualcomm(NASDAQ:QCOM) is selling its North and Latin American transportation logistics business for $800 million in cash.

On Friday, the company best known for its mobile communications chips and intellectual property announced that it has signed an agreement to divest the non-core business known as Omnitracs, a Qualcomm subsidiary that offers commercial vehicle telematics for use in planning fleet management, transportation, and logistics. It's deemed a leader in its industry, but never has been a neat fit with the rest of Qualcomm's high-tech businesses.

The deal includes all of Omnitracs operations in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America, including Sylectus and FleetRisk Advisors, which were acquired by Omnitracs in 2011.

Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners is the buyer. The price is $800 million cash. Qualcomm did not include financial details on either Omnitracs' annual sales or profits in its press release. Assuming this sale goes through as planned in the first quarter of 2014, it will provide an immediate cash infusion to Qualcomm, lifting the company's net cash position well past $12 billion.

Author

I like things that go "boom." Sonic or otherwise, that means I tend to gravitate towards defense and aerospace stocks. But to tell the truth, over the course of a dozen years writing for The Motley Fool, I have covered -- and continue to cover -- everything from retailers to consumer goods stocks, and from tech to banks to insurers as well. Follow me on Twitter or Facebook for the most important developments in defense & aerospace news, and other great stories besides.